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vorpalkitten
2013-08-22, 07:42 PM
Shrapnel is an attack type that can be added to a line, cone, ray, or circular attack. It is defined by a large blast of small, deadly physical projectiles.

Shrapnel attacks are always physical. They can be bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, or any combination of.

Shrapnel area of effects (cones and circles) typically have a Reflex save. Lines and rays are usually ranged touch attacks.

Shrapnel attacks have double range, area of effect radius, and (if applicable) speed per round.

Shrapnel damage is doubly resisted by Damage Reduction and Hardness. DR 5 will block up to 10 points of damage, DR 10, 20 points, and so on.


Adding the Shrapnel type: If an attack has multiple attack rolls, combine their damage and treat it as a single ranged touch attack with the Shrapnel type. For spells, convert to physical damage (untyped), keep the original saving throw, and treat it as a Conjuration spell.


My first homebrew. :) The idea here is to make a simple way of representing attacks with a bunch of small, deadly projectiles. Honest opinions are welcome.

Debihuman
2013-08-22, 09:08 PM
Why isn't shrapnel just piercing damage?

Debby

DodgerH2O
2013-08-22, 09:15 PM
One thing I can see, if you want to increase the effect of DR on Shrapnel, it seems that combining damage from multiple attacks is counterproductive. I mean it seems to me that if a creature with DR 5 can resist a Shrapnel attack a burst of such attacks should be pretty harmless. You can't throw more marshmallows at a piece of cardboard to break through it, you have to throw something with more oomph than marshmallows.

And re: piercing shrapnel... I felt the same at first but one could in theory have say spherical objects (bludgeoning) or thin, low-density flechettes (slashing) versus dense, pointed objects (piercing). I think damage types are kinda nonrealistic anyway so just do some handwaving.

Jurai
2013-08-22, 11:08 PM
I like the idea, but my execution would be entirely different:

Shrapnel Spell [Metamagic]
Prerequisites: Caster Level 4th
Benefit: You may change any spell that affects an area (Cone, Burst, Radius, Line, etc) and deals damage of any type into a Shrapnel spell. This spell deals damage in a very unusual manner. The target makes a Reflex Save against the Spell's DC. If he makes it, he takes half of the initial damage. After a period of time, detailed in the following table, he makes a Fortitude Save against the Same DC to take half of the damage. The damage dealt is considered to be magical, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing for the purposes of Damage Reduction, which is half-again as effective against this damage. For example, Black Mage Evilwizardington casts a Shrapnel Hadoken at Fighter McWarrior. Fighter fails his Reflex save, taking full damage from the spell. Then, after one minute has passed, Fighter rolls a Fortitude save, and makes it. This allows him to ignore the secondary damage. Had he failed it, he would have taken half of the damage he took when the spell was first cast. A Shrapnel spell uses a spell slot of the same level as the modified spell.
Special: If any other metamagic feats are applied to your Shrapnel Spell, you use the base spell level to determine when the secondary damage occurs.

{table=head]Spell Level|Time between saves
0|2 turns
1|3 turns
2|4 turns
3|5 turns
4|6 turns
5|7 turns
6|8 turns
7|9 turns
8|1 minute
9|1 minute and 5 turns[/table]

Hardened Shrapnel [General]
Prerequisites: Caster Level 6th, Shrapnel Spell
Benefit: Your Shrapnel spell gains the ability to bypass a single Damage Reduction type based on a Material (Byeshk, Adamantine, Mithral, etc.).
Special: This feat may be taken more than once. Each time you take it, you specify a new material damage reduction to bypass.

Aligned Shrapnel [General]
Prerequisites: Caster Level 8th, Shrapnel Spell, cannot be have an alignment opposed to the alignment taken with this feat.
Benefit: Your Shrapnel Spell gains the ability to bypass a single Damage Reduction type based on Alignment (Lawful, Chaos, Good, and Evil).

Rapid Shrapnel [General]
Prerequisites: Caster Level 12th, Shrapnel Spell
Benefit: Your spell's level is effectively reduced by one for determining the time it takes for the second save to occur.

Focused Shrapnel [General]
Prerequisites: Caster Level 12th, Shrapnel Spell
Benefit: You may turn a spell that affects a single target into a Shrapnel spell. The save DCs are increased by two, and the caster level for determining damage is increased by one.

Piercing Shrapnel [Epic]
Prerequisites: Caster Level 15th, Hardened Shrapnel, Aligned Shrapnel, Knowledge (Arcana) 25 ranks, Spellcraft 25 ranks
Benefit: Your Shrapnel Spell gains the ability to bypass all Damage Reduction types except insurmountable (DR X/-).

Instantaneous Shrapnel [Epic]
Prerequisites: Caster Level 18th, Quicken Spell, Rapid Shrapnel, Knowledge (Arcana) 27 ranks, Spellcraft 27 ranks
Benefit: Your Shrapnel Spell's secondary damage occurs one turn after the initial damage.
Special:You cannot take both Echoing Shrapnel and Instantaneous Shrapnel or Ternary Shrapnel. If you have both Instantaneous Shrapnel and Ternary Shrapnel, the ternary damage from this feat occurs one turn after the secondary damage.

Echoing Shrapnel [Epic]
Prerequisites: Caster Level 18th, Twin Spell, Repeating Spell, Rapid Shrapnel, Knowledge (Arcana) 27 ranks, Spellcraft 27 ranks
Benefit: Your Shrapnel Spell's secondary damage occurs every turns after the spell hits up, for a maximum of ten turns.
Special: You cannot take both Echoing Shrapnel and Instantaneous Shrapnel or Ternary Shrapnel.

Ternary Shrapnel [Epic]
Prerequisites: Caster Level 21st, Twin Spell, Repeating Spell, Knowledge (Arcana) 30 ranks, Spellcraft 30 ranks
Benefit: Your Shrapnel Spell deals even more damage, dealing damage a third time with the same time interval as it takes for the secondary damage to occur.
Special: You cannot take both Echoing Shrapnel and Instantaneous Shrapnel or Ternary Shrapnel. If you have both Instantaneous Shrapnel and Ternary Shrapnel, the ternary damage from this feat occurs one turn after the secondary damage.

Yes, I know these feats I've created are meta-metamagic.

Also, "Yo, dawg, I heard I like metamagic, so I put metamagic in my metamagic so I could have metamagic with my metamagic."